


Once upon a time, there was a merpeople island..

by smileshinki



Category: DBSK | Tohoshinki | TVfXQ | TVXQ
Genre: Alternate Universe - Merpeople, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Fanart, Fluff and Angst, Mythical Beings & Creatures, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-18
Updated: 2020-03-01
Packaged: 2021-02-12 14:46:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,150
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21478087
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/smileshinki/pseuds/smileshinki
Summary: Sometimes it is best for your well being to just take a break, travel somewhere cheap you have never been to, and meet odd creatures you only learn about in fairy tales.
Relationships: Jung Yunho/Shim Changmin
Comments: 9
Kudos: 22





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, first post here! Please be warned that this may or may not be ever completed. Based on my story telling history, it is most likely the latter. Now go on if you insist ;D  
\+ I legit haven't written any story of mine in like.. 11 years or something?? Never done it in English either. Actually, I don't even remember the last time I read a novel.  
So yup, please excuse any rusty writing styles, typos, or weird expressions. More rants at the end~
> 
> Lastly, other than duo shinki's borrowed names and image, the setting and the rest of the characters are completely fictional with random names.

The air was less humid than he expected for an island that far in the sea.

“It is because of the jet stream” one of the old men from the port had answered him. That was an hour ago when he first stepped a foot on the land. As soon as Yunho did, he was greeted by Shim Sangcheol, a smiling man in his late sixties and the mayor of the only village residing on the island, who also kindly offered to drive him to Yunho’s grandfather’s house.

They spent that 20-minute car drive chatting, with the mayor first apologizing that he was only informed late about the passing of Yunho’s aunt. Even though Yunho’s coming here was because of it, the mention of his only close relative in a place so foreign to him made him feel odd. The mayor kindly caught on his mood change and moved on to talk about the house his grandfather left to his family.

Yunho had visited it when he was a child, or so the mayor told him. He himself is not sure he did, and seeing the old house still standing elegantly half on land, half on sea, did not ring much bells in his head either.

It had been through two floods and survived, he was told. It left it, however; almost without any functional piece of furniture. The mayor told him that they have cleared most of them away. Some of the damaged doors were fixed. The house also had been cleaned just before his arrival by the aunties living nearby.

“That was so kind of them, how could I perhaps thank them for it?”

“Don’t mention it, they are so excited to meet you, everyone is! You will see them tonight when you come over for dinner,” the mayor stopped a moment before adding “that is if they haven’t started dropping by accidentally any moment now!” he laughed softly as he head back to his mini truck to leave.

With Yunho’s two suitcases and three boxes on the side of the traditionally built and spacious living room, it felt like he just stepped into a stranger’s house.

Old, clean and empty. The rail-free deck surrounding the house made it look even emptier.

There were remains of wall decorations, and the old man told him that some of his family belongings are still safe up in the attic. Nonetheless, Yunho did not feel bad for quickly abandoning the place in favor of exploring the land around. The mayor’s parting words, still fresh in his mind, prompted him even more to escape it. He even made the conscious decision to walk along the side of beach opposite to where the mayor informed him his nearest neighbor resides.

Don’t get him wrong. Yunho likes people.

He likes meeting new ones, chatting about trivial affairs, camping with friends, and expanding his forever growing network. Studying and working abroad for long periods put a hold on that at times, but he always work on it whenever he came back to visit his friends. That is actually how he managed to get himself involved in different mini business, which is what has been financially supporting him most of his life. Especially now, when he is stepping away a little bit from his main career.

It is just that… the past few months, or perhaps even the entire year?

Yunho is not exactly sure when he started to feel out of place.

It is not his aunt passing. They were not that close to start with. He hadn’t been through something massively bad either. There were few issues here and there that had upset him, but he had since moved on from them. or so he believes. So he still does not understand why he is being like this.

Working on new projects always helped resetting his mind and rekindling that excited fire inside him. Still, he was no longer positive that picking a new one as soon as he came out of the previous mess is what he needed now. Instead, he decided to take a break, as what his friends advised him, or at least a semi one, as he couldn’t survive without giving his brain something to do.

Being unmotivated was a feeling so strange to him. It does not make sense to him for it to keep persisting either, seeing how, in this same last year, life had particularly steered him away from many of the obstacles.. or people whom he struggled with.

_‘Your aunt, included’_, his brain supplies to his horror, and that is when Yunho decides to just stop thinking and distract himself with his phone.

He glances at the time. Another hour has gone by quickly. Yunho has already settled on a grassy ground by now, which he found after climbing up the small cliff side that follows the sandy beach beside his grandfather’s house.

He replies to a few messages. Some related to a change of the new orders for his and friend’s restaurant. Some are follow-ups from a collaboration paper he submitted three months ago. It still upsets him mildly that his previous research group wasted the opportunity for the patent on that one. Their faces pop up in his head, with all their politely sounding nonsense during the meetings, all their shared glances and snickers during the talks, all their.. Yunho quickly reminds himself to just let it go. It is all behind him now.

“It does not matter now, Jung Yunho~” he voices his thoughts softly as he lies back on the ground. The sky is decently cloudy, protecting his eyes from the shiny mid-day sun. With the waves crashing on the rocks underneath him acting as white noise, he finds it easy to drift into a dreamless sleep.

He wakes up later to the sun brightly blurring his eyes from what he believes to be a minute nap. Another two hours, his phone corrects him when his sight returns.

He sits glancing around in confusion. It takes him a few seconds to remember where he is, but he is mostly interested in the noise he suspects it woke him up.

A singing.

Someone or their radio are probably nearby.

His ears suggest it is coming from somewhere underneath the other side of the cliff. Yunho crawls on four a few steps, brain still disorientated, before he stands up softly patting the dirt from his behind, then walks the rest of the way.

It does not take him long before his eyes spot the source. A naked human figure on a rocky clearing down beside the sea..

and he instantly crouches down to the ground, hiding.

That was probably.. a bit of an overreaction, Yunho thinks embarrassedly.

Luckily for him, whoever it is down there does not seem to have noticed him as they continue to hum whatever song they were humming.

Yunho’s brain starts to unhelpfully replay the flash of image he just witnessed.

_‘That was a dude,' _his unamused inner voice comments._ ‘and mind you, he DID have something on.’_

He sighs soundlessly.

_‘Now just greet him like a proper human being and leave.’_

Yunho lifts up his head from where it was between his arms, turns it back, and glances down again.

The topless man was relaxing his back on a rock behind him while sitting on another one, legs buried under the sea. It looks like he was sun drying himself or taking a break from a swim.

He has.. some sparkly towel on, wrapped around his lower body, and it has to be these sparkles, Yunho thinks, that tricked his eyes at first into thinking the man was butt naked. They actually look purplish now that he had a better look at them.

The man himself has a nicely built body. The muscles on his torso are structured beautifully, easily traceable like some cleanly cut blocks. Yunho has befriended fitness trainers with amazing bodies. He himself still has a good muscle mass on him from the times when he was into powerlifting. All of which makes such a sight nothing new to him. Regardless, it was mesmerizing for a moment. He chooses to blame it on the man’s.. good-looking face, which made Yunho think he could easily fit on some fashion magazine page or a tv drama, and not on some random rock on some remote island.. especially with that lightly dyed hair.

Oh right, he is supposed to say hi and just go.

Yunho opens his mouth to speak just as the sea surface in front of the model breaks to reveal another sparkly, colorful and huge..

fish fin.

The sun has warmed the ground under his body, yet it could not stop the chill that just run down his spine.

The breath he was holding left him at once as soon as he remembered the blog post he googled up the night before he packed, and his tensed shoulders relaxed a bit.

It was a 2003 old paragraph promoting the island with a pixelated top view picture.

> _.. and as you can see, the island from the top looks remotely like a fish tail, that’s why you may find some folks calling it the merpeople island! While you may have no luck finding yourself a mermaid though, please remember to bring back home some of the locally crafted wooden fishtails! They will be nice as good luck charms for your loved ones! You may also have a chance to p.._

So that WAS what they were taking about.

Indeed. It is not like Yunho is the only visitor here, the sailors who escorted him this morning told him the other side of the island has a much busier population and port. He bets a few tourists might be around too.

It makes sense the island picked such a concept for their mascot.

His fantasy-first-reality-second thinking philosophy making a comeback now after so long is a tad uncalled for.

He couldn’t help stop another sigh escaping him.

Yunho lifts his eyes back to the man’s face to find a pair of eyes already staring at him.

Startled, Yunho's “H-hello?” comes out stuttering.

his heart probably just skipped a beat.

The man’s eyes look so lightly colored even from this distance, and it just hit Yunho that he could possibly be a foreigner.

“umm.. _Hi,_” he tries again in English.

The two huge eyes just blink up at him without uttering a word.

Yunho knit his eyebrows slightly, thinking.

“I.. well, I tho-“

“Hello, Yunho.”

“oh, Hello! So you do perhaps speak k-..”

_'wait'_, Yunho's brain caught up.

_'did he just call him by the name?_'...

“ah, Aha!” his brain recovers quickly, and he starts laughing softly “I guess news do travel fast around here.”

The other man just.. sat there, staring at him with these wide eyes of his, in silence.

Yunho blinked a few times, before he pushes himself toward the cliff’s edge, sitting on his knees to present himself properly to a possible neighbor.

A less likely chatty neighbor.

“So, yeah, I’m Yunho, Jung Yongnam’s grandson.. well,.. I’m not sure if you knew him,” the man in front of him looks young, “but his house is-“

“- the first one behind you,” the young man says as he slips slowly into the sea, down until only his head can be seen. “I know.”

Yunho is not certain how to proceed with that, something his normally openly-social self is not used to.

Probably because he sorts of felt like he is being dismissed. The crashing sound of the waves becoming louder as the winds picked up doesn’t give him much encouragement either.

“Well then,” Yunho raises his voice and stands straight patting his pants. “See you around I guess.” He flashes a small smile on his face, turns his body around, and starts jogging back.

Halfway to his place, he remembers that he doesn’t have the guy’s name. More pressing than that, however, is the fact that he needs to do something about the way his brain.. is back to its old ways of jumping to funny conclusions at random times.

It won’t serve him well to start feeding his childish love for fantasy tales if he is going to live all alone in a creepy deserted house for the next few months.

*******

There are at least over 15 people gathered for the “dinner”.

It is actually more of a barbeque party, held on the dock nearby the mayor’s house, to welcome their old friend’s grandson, the young professor Yunho from the capital (“assistant professor,” Yunho corrected shyly).

The moment he stepped there he was pulled around and introduced to almost everyone present. Some asked him if he remembered them, while others asked him about his job or if he had a girlfriend. The topic of his aunt’s passing was unavoidable, and Yunho politely accepted their words of sympathy. He made sure to sincerely thank grandma Chaewon and Minwoo‘s mother for tidying up his old man’s house. He was served soju by auntie Jieun’s nephew Dohun, a young man in his early twenties who has just been discharged from the military. Dohun was the only youngster around. The rest of the villagers seemed to be in their late 40s to mid-60s, that is with the exception of Yunho himself... and Changmin.

Shim Changmin. The mayor’s relative.

So that was his name.

The fish tail mascot guy.

Changmin only nodded in acknowledgement when they were introduced upon his arrival. Yunho sees him now laughing loudly with a couple of fishermen, smacking the wooden floor of the dock in excitement with one hand, while clinking the glass on his right hand with the others’.

He looks too animated compared to the Changmin he met in the afternoon.

Still in the water, though. but thankfully this time he has some sporty tank top on.

Yunho hears him call Dohun to join him down there, to which the younger responds he needed to help man the grill.

_'This guy sure loves to swim'_, Yunho thought. He wonders if it is shallow enough there in the shore for him to stand.

The night passes with more guests excusing themselves. Yunho has so many glasses for his liking. He could feel his face flushed red, and his tongue becoming heavy. But the company feels nice and warm.

Yunho really likes people.

Besides, it will probably be rude of him to leave when this was for him and half of them is still around.

“That’s nonsense,” grandma Chaewon finally dismisses him with a wave of her hand “Go back home and get some sleep, you travelled a long way to come here, professor.”

Yunho does not argue back. He does want to stay, but he does feel tired after all. He bows thanking the group, assures them he can find his way back, and leaves with some packed leftovers. “That’s for your breakfast, you still don’t have a working stove” Minwoo’s mother says as she loads him with two plastic bags.

There is no full moon on sight, so he turns on the flash on his phone to not trip. The 30-minute walk back helped sober him up a bit, so he decides to read a few emails when he arrives before retiring to bed. or to the blankets they lent him earlier in the day.

Reading long bodies of text on the small screen of his phone makes him dizzy, so Yunho switches on his laptop and connects it with his phone’s network. The signal is on the weaker side compared to the one closer to the mayor’s house, but he is thankful it exists at all. The electricity has been newly re-extended, following the damages that the house has seen. He only has two plugs to work with, and a lamp on battery that will do for night reading. The mini fridge he bought will probably arrive tomorrow, so he has no place to keep the food he just brought fresh, but they should last him just fine.

He scoots back to the wall behind him, laptop open resting on his thighs, and the room’s double door on the seaside widely open to allow as much of the scarce moonlight to light the space for him on top of the faint lamp light.

The night breeze is freely circulating inside, and it feels nice. Yunho decides immediately that he will sleep right there every night instead of the stuffier bedroom.

It is strange how he started warming up to the lonely house when he could not stand staying inside it for a minute this morning.

Meeting the elders, them doting on him, and exchanging harmless chatter may or may not have helped him feel more at ease.

Or maybe he’s just sleepy and tired.

He has been re-reading the same page for the third time before a loud snicker makes him jolt.

His head snaps to the sea on his right.

There is an arm resting on the edge of the wooden deck, and Yunho feels goosebumps spreading all over his limbs.

“so that witch is gone,” the words come before Changmin’s head pops up in front of him.

If it wasn’t for his lamp, Yunho wouldn’t have recognized him, with his face half hidden behind his arms, and eyes all dark staring up at him quietly.

“what are you doing here?” Yunho asks, eyes widening. “hold on, did you swim _all the way_ to here??”

Changmin lifts his head up enough to show his smile, then rests it sideway on his arms.

“Are you crazy?” Yunho feels his voice rising, “You are drunk! what if you have drowned??”

That earns him a loud laughter.

Yunho couldn’t believe the man.

“Get. Out. The water. NOW”

The stern order stuns Changmin for a second, and Yunho almost feels bad about it until he spots the nonchalant smile sneaking back on the other’s face.

Eyes twinkling with mischief and arms slowly untangling, Changmin braces himself on the wooden platform.

“Now that is something I can do, hyung~ ”

.. and in a single and quick move, Changmin lifts up his body out of the sea, and curls it around himself, water still dripping, as he sits comfortably outside the room, his back to the sea.

The night view before him isn’t the brightest it can be in a month. The house has no ceiling lamps the way his apartment back in the city luxuriously did.

Nonetheless, Yunho allows his brain this time to accept what he sees for what it is.

Whether it is a costume or something else.

There’s just no way human knees can bend the opposite way, twisting so smoothly like that.

Normal feet can’t just squeeze in that narrow end, where the fish fin is now fanning its owner lazily.

Yunho is allowed to feel spooked first before he may consider any logic his brain may provide.

“Changmin-ssi,.. what are you?”

_ **TBC(?)** _

  
  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi again!  
If you follow me on twitter, I think you have already guessed who I am by the fanart ahaha. I considered going with the same user here but I don't know where the heck I will be going with this so, yup!  
and with this piece, I have officially accepted that I will never have the time or patience to ever draw this as a comic, as I intended 4 or 5 years ago when mermin was first born ; A ;)/
> 
> It's scary how fast time passes.
> 
> In these years some elements in the plot kept changing and I considered so many endings. I honestly had no intention to share it in any other format beside random fanarts that probably make no sense to anyone but myself ; v ;)/. I knew however that I needed to get some of this world out of my system to make space for new babies to roll around, and I felt it wouldn't hurt to at least share the first bits somewhere online, so I can just link it to anyone who may ask me what all of this is about if I posted another random confusing comic lol.
> 
> I had other stuff to say but I don't remember them now. I just reposted it because I have no idea how this places works. Oh right, don't expect much shippy stuff here. It will mostly be some light fun about two beings from two different worlds trying to understand each other.  
The title may get changed one day, or may be left as it is. It was originally supposed to be a much shorter tale you see. In my head I just call it MerMin for short.
> 
> I hope you enjoyed your monday with a hint of some mermin and a confused jung!
> 
> edit: fixed some typos


	2. Chapter 2

“Changmin-ssi,.. what are you?”

The smile Changmin has on his face dims slightly for a second, before it comes back again, albeit less amused. 

“what..”, Changmin raises his left eyebrow. “why are you suddenly acting surprised when you were fine earlier, hyung”

“W-why? But I wasn’t..” Yunho is just stunned. He tries again, puzzled, “why should I know..” then he stops himself wondering what the heck is going on now.

“I don’t know,” Changmin crosses his arms answering, “maybe because it’s not like this is your first time here, either”.

The shadows around his lips are still projecting a smile, yet he sounded somehow irritated to Yunho’s pure confusion.

“wait, this is not making any sense, eh, what?” Yunho picks his laptop from sliding off his thighs and puts it safely on the side. He shifts his body to fully face Changmin, both now are sitting less than two meters apart.

This is not the first time today he hears about himself being at places he is certain he has never been to. That is unless he was too tiny a baby to remember, and if true then he bets it was at a time when this Changmin, who looks younger than him, had not even been born. He knows he has never lived beside the open sea, and there is no way he can forget lands where there are.. people..(?).. like that.

Speaking of _that_..

During that nonsensical exchange, Yunho couldn’t help himself from being distracted by the other man’s.. twitching fin, extending from his humanly-impossible twisted limbs.

Even now.

How is that possible?

He remembers that Changmin hasn’t given him an explicit answer for it yet, so he shifts his gaze away, eyes finding the other man’s again.

“Um.. Changmin-ssi,” he starts unsure, trying to pick his words carefully. “are you.. is this..” then he pauses a second time to think. 

He doesn’t want to say something silly. Not to this guy. Also, what if this is some sort of a trick.

Yunho furrows his eyebrows and tilts his head, then seeming to have made his mind, the young prof points with his chin towards Changmin’s side and asks:

“how does that work?”

Changmin’s dark eyes give him a quick scan before they meet his own again.

Yunho wonders if it is because of the bad light that the pair seems to reflect none of that bright brownish colour he saw in the morning. They look completely black now.

“I don’t know,” Changmin says a second time, a hint of irritation still clinging to his voice, then unfolds his arms to rest his palms on the floor behind him. 

“why don’t you see for yourself?”. 

The offer takes Yunho by surprise, and he tenses up.

Changmin leans back taking a relaxed posture with his.. tail body being less tightly curled around him. It is actually extended ahead in front of him and is much closer to Yunho now for him to see… and touch.

or potentially touch. Yunho isn’t about to touch anything anytime soon. He isn’t even certain if he has sobered up or if he is actually sleeping away his tiredness and this is his dream land inspired by his morning encounter with the Shim. A super detailed dream, with all the sea water shining on the scales and dripping around in puddles. 

_ ‘This isn’t a dream _ .’ He thinks as a gust of cold breeze passes and makes him shiver, the hair standing on his arms is starting to sting.

_‘and if this is not some trick, or some well-crafted costume.. ‘_ then Yunho really isn’t sure what to think. 

  
He stares at where Changmin’s torso is connected with his lower half, then moves his eyes up. 

The man still has that swim top on, and it is sticking like a second skin to his chest with it being all wet and tight.

Another shiver runs through Yunho’s limbs, then he stands suddenly and walks to the side of the room where one of his suitcases lies open on the floor.

  
He digs his large towel from the very bottom then heads back to Changmin.

“Here.” Yunho offers him, “it is getting a bit cold, so you better not stay wet like this.”

Changmin blinks widely at him, mouth thinly shut, then his eyes grow even wider once they land on what the older man is holding. Yunho follows his gaze back to his huge fluffy white towel with red strawberries and little brown teddy bears, and he feels his face heating.

“just dry yourself!” he lets the towel fall into the other’s lap, then sits down in front of him, cheeks are getting as dark as the hearts the teddies are holding.

Yunho looks pointedly down where the fin has stopped moving and is lying peacefully beside Changmin. He doesn’t hear him say or move to do anything. Yunho furrows his eyebrows again.

“So you are a mermaid? Or is it a merman” he says in one breath.

“well, congratulations on finally figuring that one out”.

“so you really are one?!” Yunho’s head snaps up, and then stares openly in astonishment.

He takes in Changmin’s shape again, despite the poor lighting, and follows the full length of his lower body with that folding and now unfolding fin. The scales look shiny and as if they will scratch him when touched. The skin in-between the tail fin’s bones (or cartilages? he isn’t sure) looks a bit transparent near the edges, and he wonders if they could easily get torn.  


His face must have been transparent as well because the next thing he hears is Changmin asking if he wants him to slap it on his face to help him check.

“wha- oh, no, sorry,” Yunho says sheepishly and looks away. He pauses a moment then points to the towel, “well I guess then, you don’t need that?”

“not really, but your floor definitely does,” Changmin holds his tail closer, “sorry about that”

“it’s ok, don’t worry about it” Yunho says as he retrieves his towel, hugs it to his chest and sets back.

  
There is indeed no way his dream self can make up such an awkward scene for a supernatural reveal. He trusts his brain after all to sprinkle some dramatic reactions, or more thrilling and exciting effects.

So this is real.

It feels weird.

It is fascinating. But he is feeling anxious.

Sort of uncomfortable. Especially with the way the other seems to be studying him wordlessly, face revealing nothing readable.

Why did the merman come here? They didn’t even exchange a word earlier this evening.

“I.. I assume everyone else here knows about this?” he asks carefully.

Changmin smirks at him and Yunho tenses instantaneously.

Could it be that Changmin is pretending to be human? The merman didn’t reveal himself before him now that he is all alone so he can harm Yunho, did he?

“Of course, they do,” Changmin shifts to an even more relaxed stance, almost lying on his side on the wooden floor. “Well, at least those who need to” he adds.

Yunho almost huffs in relief, before he pauses.

“What does that mean?” he asks, “are they also like you?”

“What do you think?”

They examine each other silently before Yunho decides on a different approach.

“Can you.. umm, is there, can you change into human legs?”

“Why, can a legs-amputee grow one?”

Yunho’s cheeks heats at that and he stutters “w-well some species can grow limbs, I was just asking.”

“I’m sure these species don’t just switch their arms into wings at will” Changmin huffs then adds “and while we are on the topic: No, there is no octopus lady witch that trades voices for transformation spells” he rests his cheek on his hand.

Yunho’s own cheeks becoming visibly red even in such lighting tells the other man that he correctly guessed where his train of thoughts was heading.

Yunho looks at his own lap and fiddles with the ends of the towel as he waits for his face to cool down. _‘So the others are not like him’, _he sighs softly. Now that he thinks of it, he doesn’t remember spotting this man walking around during the dinner, either.

_ ‘merpeople are real,’ _ he wonders in amazement now, feeling more relaxed._ ‘does that mean more mythical creatures exist?’_

_ ‘What else?’ _

_ ‘But first how does he live here?’ _

He looks back at Changmin who seems now to be more interested in the contents of Yunho’s living room, eyes lazily scanning the corners while pausing momentarily at the little belongings he has scattered around.

“So she really is gone”.

Yunho looks at him confused before he gets it. 

The merman is asking about his aunt.

“Ah. Yeah.” He replies, “did you know her?”

Changmin’s eyes flick back to him for a moment before they go back to the room.

“She was a witch”.

Yunho blinks at him, then it occurs to him that the shim mentioned it as well when he just popped out of the sea.

“Are you saying that my aunt was actually a witch?” Yunho blurts out, only to send the merman into a fit of laughter.

“If those evil fairytale witches were to exist”, Changmin says after he gained enough breath to talk “then she certainly would be one”.

He looks at Yunho with a grin on his face “you’re really something, hyung”.

Yunho feels the muscles on his jaw tightening, the amusement is lost on him.

“You’re younger than me, aren’t you,” he says suddenly. “I don’t remember asking you to talk casually with me”.

“You certainly don’t remember a lot of the things you’ve done here,” replies Changmin as he shifts up to set “don’t you, Yunho-ssi”.

“Are you saying we’ve met before?”

“If you don’t believe we might, then I certainly have never existed in your life before”.

“So did we or did we not? It is a simple question” Yunho asks, feeling himself getting agitated.

“Well, you’re giving me now the impression that you come across people with fish limbs quite often”, Changmin chuckles.

“That is not an answer”.

“Apologies, prof,” he chuckles again. “but you see, whichever it is, it doesn’t matter to you.”

“I’m sure I’m the one who gets to decide that”.

They stare at each other in a somehow charged silence, then Yunho finally shifts his eyes away to the sea behind the other.

He takes a deep breath to relax his tensed shoulders a little. He knows he is upset, and he knows it has less to do with Changmin’s manner of speech, or his ambiguity, or even the rude stranger’s insult to his dead relative… 

well, perhaps that is the problem.

“look here,” he stands up, walking back towards the heap of blankets. “I am tired after yesterday’s trip and need to sleep”.

He switches off his lamp, and starts preparing his yo bed, his back to Changmin in a clear dismissal.

A minute passes before he hears a huge splash behind him. He waits a few seconds before he glances back to find no traces of the merman, his towel has been folded neatly on top of the dried floor.

He brings his blanket up to his neck and twists to lie on his side. He stares at the empty dark sea until his eyelids close, sending him into an empty dream land.

*******

Yunho’s mild headache was mostly gone by the time he finished his breakfast. 

The morning was quite busy. He answered two long calls from his business partner and another friend. In between, he opened the door for the guy from the appliance store and got his fridge installed. The clock now is approaching noon when he feels he is all ready for some very needed grocery shopping.

He pulls on a white-blue striped cotton t-shirt, slips on his backpack, and stuffs his wallet in his sweatpants’ pocket before he heads out. 

Minwoo’s mother runs a connivence store where the village houses starts, or that’s what she has told him yesterday over dinner, so he walks his way there.

Now that he thought of yesterday.

Yunho slows down as he opens his phone on the search pages he was scrolling through first thing in the morning.

He has looked up the island along with any reports of merpeople spotting but the search results returned nothing of value. 

This place is not popular to start with. 

Based on what he found, there seems to have been some efforts in the past to encourage local tourism. He assumes it might still be getting some traction with all the humble fishtail charm selling business he read about. However, it definitely does not gather enough attention for it to be discussed in any active online myths forums. Or at least the ones Yunho quickly stumbled upon, he certainly needs to come back to it later for a thorough search.

It is just highly unlikely that such a thing can pass undetected. 

Not in this era, at least.

unless... maybe it is possible because it is only one..?

Is it only one, though? 

He can’t remember who, but he is sure someone told him yesterday that Changmin is related to the mayor. How can they be related if one is human and the other is not?

A frown appears on Yunho’s forehead. He did not just hallucinate last night’s event, did he?

He looks up from the paved road and spots the store. 

It looks smaller than what he imagined, the font on the store sign is slightly faded, but the cosiness inside makes him feel a sense of nostalgia.

The bell chirps when he enters, and Minwoo’s mother’s head peaks at him from behind one of the shelves.

“Oh, if it isn’t our young prof,” she smiles greeting. “I hope you had a good first night sleep in your grandpa’s house!”

Yunho smiles answering that he did, and thanks her again for cleaning up that place.

“It was no big deal, dear” she says as she goes back to stocking up some canned food.  
  


Yunho buys himself a few bottles of water and diet coke along with some snacks and packets of instant noodles that he intends for lunch.

“You don’t plan to feed on such things while you’re here, do you,” she comments while she rings him up.

Yunho laughs guiltily, so she sighs and adds “I remember Jieun has a portable stove she does not use so I will ask her if we can borrow it for you”

“I can’t trouble you,” Yunho quickly says, “you have all been too kind to me already”.

“If I don’t, you will just keep feeding your self this junk,” she huffs as she helps him stuff his things.

Yunho knows well when he can negotiate and when he needs to submit, so he accepts it. He will just make sure to drop by more often to help around while he stays here.

Speaking of helping opportunities, one presents itself immediately to him as the woman asks him suddenly: “Are you heading home now?”

“Um, yes?”

“Perfect! Could you do me a little favour?” She disappears to the back of the store for a moment and then comes back with a cloth-wrapped box.

“The kids went swimming but forgot to bring it along,” she hands it to Yunho. “It is just kimbap, but I made plenty so you can all share it together”.

“Sure, where are they?”

“Oh, you haven’t passed by them?” She asks back. “They should be somewhere at the beach before you reach your house when you walk back, they often go there!”

“Is that so?” Yunho says as he puts his bag on. “I must have missed them since I was walking on the main street”.

“Well, if you don’t find them then you’re welcome to keep their snack to yourself!”

“How could I!” Yunho laughs, “I don’t want them to hate me”.

“Oh, come on, I am sure they will love you!” She pats his back ushering, “Plus, that’s what they would get for going to places without telling me”.

“Then I will make sure to find them!” He laughs again as he waves her goodbye.

He takes the sidewalk this time, which diverges away from the street at some curves, bringing him closer to the shore.

He passes by a couple of houses but does not stop to greet his grandfather’s neighbours, brain completely focused on his little quest. He hears before he sees faraway shouts of children after he passes the last house.

He can spot from the distance a few figures beside the sea. A boy who seems to be swimming, while two other kids are playing on the beach. Or perhaps three. That looks like a person’s head on the sand, and they are burying her under the sand, Yunho thinks. 

He walks towards them smiling. He has always been fond of children. He often insists on his married friends to bring their kids along when they meet up, or send him cute pictures when he is away. 

They would tease him sometimes and predict how much he will be wrapped around his own kids’ fingers one day in the future. It is a cute picture to image sometimes although Yunho is not entirely positive it might be possible for him.

As he is getting closer, he finds that the body that is being half buried by the two little girls is way too long to be a little sister of theirs. 

It has way too long legs wrapped in a way too sparkly purplish swimsuit that ends with a familiar large fin.

“Oppa! It’s a strange uncle!” the older one of the girls gasp-whispers to the mop of hair on the sand where Yunho’s feet stopped.

The owner of said exotic set twists his head back, and looks at Yunho upside down from behind his shades.

“Well,Hello there, prof”.

Yunho frowns.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this happened again.
> 
> I had some of it written a few months ago, but only thought about it again when I just had this huge urge to draw some MerMin but nothing was coming out the way I wanted it, so I decided finally to let some of it out at least in writing lol


End file.
